126. Truly Remarkable!

2024.02.03.

The blond handsome man, who had taken in twelve women one after another without even a single knot of his robe coming loose, replied in a indifferent tone.

At that cold, unshakable demeanor, Eddie Rev’s eyes sparked with fury.

“Hah! Truly remarkable! Yeah? Huh?”

He was infuriated by the calm response, as if someone had just casually mentioned tying a horse in a stable.

Did Clade really think Eddie, a man with neither blood nor tears, would be completely fine with his reckless lifestyle?

Hadn’t Lancelot’s scream that Clade loved Yuan Pelliese echoed in his mind every single day?

Hadn’t his heart chilled at Clade’s words—“Anyone but that black-haired woman”?

Would he have simply clapped and said it was a good thing if Clade, who previously rejected everyone around him with obsessive perfection, never spending a single wedding night with any of his eight prior brides, had now voluntarily taken in dozens of women?

He had suppressed the lingering bitterness in his heart, convincing himself it was enough—as long as Clade could forget his latest betrayal, and as long as it led to Emperor Igor lowering his guard.

That was why he had passionately scouted and sent carefully selected courtesans to the Black Mansion.

Even afterward, he never let his surveillance slack, receiving daily reports each morning—just in case one of them might somehow become linked to Emperor Igor or Bollonico.

But now, seeing Clade casually drinking and shrugging it off, claiming Eddie had misunderstood everything, without even sharing the fact that he had once spared and sent away a first wife—Eddie felt an overwhelming urge to smash that arrogant, sharp-edged pride of his.

Remembering all the emotional turmoil he had endured, a mocking tone involuntarily slipped from his lips.

“You deceived me? Huh? You deceived even me? Deceived me for ten years, and still you lie?”

“I never deceived you. You were the one thrilled when I said I wanted women brought in. You never asked what I intended to do with them.”

“You damn bastard! Of course I assumed—you summon flower-like women in the middle of the night!”

“Of course. What?”

“Grrr—!”

At Clade’s emotionless face, Eddie Rev finally snapped back to reality, his face suddenly flushing red.

But only for a moment.

Seeing Clade chugging down alcohol straight from the bottle, Eddie let his tensed shoulders drop and wiped his face dry.

He could no longer act as emotionally as Lancelot.

Between Lancelot, who kept shrieking demands for explanations, and Clade, who remained lost in thought while silently downing drinks, someone—himself—had to stay grounded.

As for the courtesans brought into the Black Mansion, he now understood exactly what had happened. His pride wounded, he no longer wished to ask further.

The women who came and went here with their faces veiled probably had similar intentions.

They weren’t courtesans, but because Federico Companni personally interviewed them and sent them to the Crown Prince, they had drawn attention from the people here.

Rumors about Clade, the kind usually seen in gossip sheets, would now spread from mouth to mouth among the residents around this townhouse.

From this side, it was a no-effort, no-sweat situation—perhaps even a way to reduce workload.

“Lily Companni too…… Right……”

Clade abruptly cut off Eddie’s dazed muttering.

“It would take too long to explain. In short, I saved the woman who claimed she wanted to die, and silently allowed rumors of her death to spread. There was no need to help her. Would anyone have found it strange if someone in the Black Mansion died of an unknown illness?”

“No way……”

Clade raised his head and drained the entire bottle.

A droplet of alcohol clinging to his perfectly shaped lips slid down his chin, immediately wiped away by the white sleeve of his robe.

Eddie stared blankly, then let out a hoarse voice, utterly disgusted.

“No way—you didn’t just save Lily Companni, did you?”

Even Lancelot, who had been pacing and shrieking nonstop, froze mid-step.

Clade, having roughly wiped his mouth, revealed a smile showing his white teeth.

His eyes sank to freezing point, yet his lips curled sharply upward.

It was unclear whether he was laughing or grimacing bitterly, but Eddie took that expression as a sufficient answer.

Unconsciously, his legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees on the cold, marble floor typical of the South, pressing his forehead to the ground.

His long caramel-colored hair, flowing like freshly squeezed tree sap, spilled over his broad back and onto the floor. His hair and shoulders trembled like a madman’s.

“This is insane…… This man is insane……”

“I didn’t survive without any plan.”

“Insane…… Insane……”

“I’ve shown them kindness—now I must go collect my due.”

“You madman—!”

In Eddie Rev’s brilliant mind, the faces of all the brides who had entered the Black Mansion and either died or fled came flooding in.

Some had indeed died—though after Lily Companni’s case, he couldn’t be 100% certain—and others had escaped.

Louise Pelliese’s body was buried in the Marquis’s family cemetery, so she was definitely dead. Meanwhile, the families of several brides who had previously fled were now living in silent fear, fallen out of the Emperor’s favor.

Even excluding them, it meant at least one or more of those presumed dead were actually alive—and had deceived everyone.

Clade spoke as if tossing Eddie the correct answer.

“No need to rack your brain. Most of them are my former wives from the South, all alive and returned. Two more remain.”

“From the South?”

“I already told you.”

Clade replied with a chilling smile.

“Even without that messenger pigeon sent by the Companni women, I had already planned to go south first.”

Eddie Rev abruptly lifted his head, which had been resting on the marble floor.

He stared up at Clade with bloodshot eyes, like a madman about to behead a prisoner.

***

After spending a long time inside Clade’s room, the Rev brothers emerged with faces as lifeless and trembling as if drained of vitality, like withered ancient wood.

Even as they closed the door behind them, they struggled to fully process the words that had come from Clade’s mouth.

Only after hearing the explanation—that besides Lily Companni, two more brides had been secretly saved and sent to the South, both rescued from actual attempted poisonings—did they regain their senses.

The Rev brothers recalled how, during the ten years Clade was confined in the Black Mansion, he had chased away everyone who was dying inside the estate.

Of course, Clade’s inability to stand by and watch life fade within the Black Mansion stemmed from his past wounds.

After all, even before taking any brides, he had sent out a dying rat caught in a trap, unable to bear watching it suffer. He was the kind of man who constantly mocked himself: “Why must I keep witnessing someone’s death here?”

Yet coincidentally, this obsessive, desperate behavior had lowered the alertness of the guards surrounding the mansion.

So long as brides appeared to be near death, sending them out to die in a hunting lodge in the White Forest or elsewhere raised no suspicion.

“If Heaven helped, then it helped.”

The innocent brides, poisoned and then treated, could immediately flee far from Roxenhardt after leaving behind a substitute corpse.

And their birth families, who aided them, would have no choice but to cooperate with Clade—just to ensure the ruse remained hidden from the Imperial Court.

Especially the Southern families, who were already flattened under suspicion of rebellion!

The Imperial Court’s excessive demands for proof of loyalty from the South had ironically become an opportunity for Clade to quietly gather his forces.

But even though they understood it logically, the brothers couldn’t simply feel joy or excitement.

Just how far ahead had Clade been thinking? And how many more truths would they uncover in the future?

He desperately wanted to grab Clade by the collar and shake him, demanding he spill every thought he’d kept to himself—but Eddie held back.

Because he understood: sometimes, even allies must be deceived to deceive the enemy.

‘For now, we have no choice but to believe and follow.’

Who else but them would believe and follow Clade?

There was still much to do.

“Uh, Viscount. A knight has arrived from the House of Marquis Companni.”

The steward’s voice echoed through the lobby, where a different kind of silence now hung.

Behind the steward, a dark-skinned knight stepped forward.

A knight bearing the rough, wave-like crest of the House of Marquis Companni on his chest, cloaked in blue.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Viscount Rev!”

Eddie Rev snatched the letter from the cheerful Southern knight’s hand and read it irritably.

It was an invitation.

Announcing a welcoming ceremony in honor of Empress Marilyn’s visit to her hometown.

It also noted that the summer social season would begin earlier, starting from this event.

Eddie Rev asked urgently.

“Who accompanied the Empress on her Southern procession?”

“Pardon?”

“Who is attending this welcoming ceremony alongside Her Majesty?”

The knight, clearly unprepared for such a question, blinked briefly before answering naively.

The relaxed, slow Southern drawl stretched out, piercing the brothers’ ears.

“Of course, His Royal Highness the Second Prince and Sir Eugene Kimfri, Captain of the Second Imperial Knight Regiment, who came as escort?”

“That’s all?”

“The maids who came with Her Majesty will also attend.”

“Yuan Pelliese?”

The knight, unfamiliar with the name, responded cheerfully, as if confirming.

“Oh, yes! The former Crown Princess and younger sister of Sir Eugene Kimfri!”

The knight smiled warmly, then asked if there was anything else to convey before leaving the townhouse.

The Rev brothers’ faces hardened, still reeling from one shock after another. Soon, Eddie broke the brief silence.

“Don’t tell Clade.”

“What?”

“That Yuan Pelliese is in the South.”

When Lancelot flinched in surprise, Eddie added.

“He’ll find out anyway once he decides to attend the welcoming ceremony or whatever. Why bother telling him early and stirring things up?”